Submission Guidelines

PERMANENTLY CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS

Before you submit to us, endeavour to follow our website, like our Facebook page, and follow us on twitter. We make this a criterion, for now, because we are a new market and we hope our network mushrooms with your support.

WHAT WE WANT

SHORT STORY/FLASH FICTION:
Although we have a soft spot for submissions by Africans, we welcome stories from the rest of the world if they present Africa in a Fantasy, science fiction, or horror setting or with speculative elements. The characters in such stories mustn’t be blacks. In fact, if making your characters black is the only African attribute in your story, then it is probably not for us. We want you to dive into rare African cultures and traditions, tweak them to your taste and sprinkle magic and futuristic science over them. Then serve them to us on a platter made of an unusual and fluid voice, a well-defined plot, characters that are larger than life, dry humour, and imageries that leave their imprints in our minds long after we finish devouring them.

Once in a while, we consider stories of non-African settings and elements. So feel free to submit these to us. Be aware, however, that we publish only one of such stories per month.

LENGTH:
We consider stories up to 2000 words, but we prefer to see ones between 100 and 1000 words. Anything above 2000 words will be rejected.

PAYMENT:
For Nigerian authors, we pay N2 per word for up to 1000 words, N2000 flat for stories above that, and N1000 for anything below 500 words. We pay via bank transfer or MTN/Airtel/Etisalat recharge vouchers.

Unfortunately, due to issues with using Nigerian cards online, we are currently unable to pay international contributors. However, we do appreciate their contributions.

RIGHTS:
We buy the right to exclusively publish your piece on our website and in our quarterly Anthology. Most rights revert back to the author after six months of the piece appearing on our website. However, we will retain non-exclusive rights to continue selling the issue of our Anthology in which your piece appeared and to keep the piece in our archive.

HOW TO SUBMIT:
Submit your work as a DOC, DOCX, or RTF attachment to magazinesubsaharan@gmail.com with “Story Submission: Your Story Title” as the subject of the email. Please, the attached manuscript must be in standard manuscript format. Any story that isn’t properly formatted will be rejected. The same goes for stories that don’t follow the guidelines.

POETRY:
We want your poems of up to forty lines. Anything above that will be rejected. We prefer our poems dark, speculative, and humorous. Please no romantic poems, unless it’s about a date with a murderous alien on a poisonous planet where you end up dying by either throttling or sheer asphyxiation before you could write the poem.

Please use “Poetry Submission: You Poem Title” as the subject of your email.

We pay N1,000 (Nigerian naira) flat for each accepted poem. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to pay international poets, but we do appreciate their contributions.

REPRINTS:
We occasionally accept story reprints. Therefore, if you are submitting a story for reprint, you must include “reprint” in the subject of your email in this format: “Reprint Submission: Story Title”. Also, include where and when the story was first published in the body of the email.

We do not accept poetry reprints.

We pay N1,000 (Nigeria naira) flat for accepted reprints between 500 and 5000 words. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to pay writers from other countries, but we appreciate their stories.

ARTWORK:
We accept unsolicited artwork. Your artwork must be attached in JPEG or PNG format, and the file size should be no more than 5mb. Use “Artwork Submission: Your artwork title” as the subject of your email.

We pay between N1,000 and N2,000 for artwork, depending on the quality and how much we love it. Unfortunately, we are currently unable to pay foreign illustrators, but we do appreciate their artworks.

MULTIPLE AND SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS:
Please, no multiple submissions. We, however, don’t mind simultaneous submissions, provided that you alert us if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

RESPONSE TIME:
We try to respond to all submissions in two weeks. However, if you haven’t heard from us in a month, do query via the email magazinesubsaharan@gmail.com with “Query: Your Piece Title” as the subject. In the body of your email, include the date and type of submission.

The Worst Breed of VulturesThe Woodcutters' DeityThe Mama MmiriThere's Going to be a Way

About Walter

A speculative fiction writer, a Writers of the Future winner, and a runner-up in the Writers Bureau's Writer of the Year Award, 2017. I'm currently exploring means (both scientific and magical) of attaining immortality or outliving my 200th birthday at least. If you happen upon a medical remedy or a spell, please let me know.